Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
results, the following processes were identified as major determinants of the
uncertainty: leaching rate, underwater surface area, shipping characteristics,
hydrodynamic exchange, partitioning, sedimentation, and (bio)degradation.
The first version of Mam-Pec (v1.0) was released in 1999. Since then up-
dates have been released in 2002 (v1.4) and early 2005 (v1.6) compatible with
common operating systems (Win9x-NT-2000-XP). The development of the
model was sponsored by the Antifouling Working Group of the European
Paint Makers Association (CEPE
CEFIC), with contributions of the European
Commission—DG XI (1997-1999). Regulatory agencies in Finland, Suisse,
Netherlands, USA, and other countries in biocide admission procedures have
applied Mam-Pec recently. The model and documentation and are freely
available via websites of CEPE (www.cepe.org) and other organizations of
paint producers (www.antifoulingpaint.com).
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5
Conclusions and Outlook
Most of the currently available screening models used in environmental risk
assessment are not equipped to handle the complex hydrodynamic exchange
and sedimentation processes in estuarine and coastal environments. As the
largest emissions of biocides in antifouling paints occur in the marine and
estuarine commercial harbors special models are required for a realistic risk
assessment of antifoulants. Various user-friendly models are currently avail-
able, which allow a more or less realistic prediction of environmental concen-
trations in the marine environment. Some of these models and underlying
emission scenarios have been incorporated in recent environmental emission
scenario documents (ESD-PT21) for the Biocide Directive the European Com-
munity and other OECD countries. Large uncertainties are involved in the
estimation of emissions based on leaching rates extrapolated from labora-
tory experiments and estimated underwater surface areas. Available models
have been validated for a limited number of compounds in a few field studies.
No full quantitative sensitivity analysis data are available. With the expected
implementation of the antifouling treaty of the International Maritime Orga-
nization (IMO) in the coming years and the ban on TBT a large number of
new products need to be evaluated. Against this background significant ef-
forts are required to reduce the inherent uncertainty of model predictions, as
well as realistic field studies for a proper validation of existing models.
References
1. Kramer KJM, Jak RG, van Hattum B, Hooftman RN, Zwolsman JJG (2004) Environ
Tox Chem 23:2971
